Japanese Eras
From Taika to Reiwa, With Some Lasting Months
Japan has used around 250 era names since 645, several of them under a year because a fire or a comet forced a reset. Showa is the long outlier.
Japan Know How archive
Reiwa era
Japanese Eras
The Statute Written for a Single Emperor
Japanese law had no route for an emperor to step down, so the Diet passed a statute covering one man only. The first abdication since 1817 needed it.
Japanese Eras
The First Era Name Not Taken From China
Every earlier era name traced back to a Chinese classic. Reiwa was pulled from an eighth-century Japanese poetry preface, and that was the whole point.
Japanese Eras
1 April 2019, and the Board Held Up
Suga held the card up before midday, thirty years after Obuchi did the same for Heisei. What happened in the room, and why the name stayed sealed.